Spammers Get Squidoo Dropped
Squidoo was founded in 2005 on the principle that people should have a place to share their knowledge online. This was done with the understanding that marketers would probably use the program to attempt to generate new business and pitch their opinions.
The company however was not planning on search spammers to take over their space. The service has been abused and it has come as a surprise to the company that the unwelcomed SEO practitioners have set up camp.
This past week the company felt the effects of the oversight in the form of attention from Google and search bloggers. The behemoth search engine has lashed the content sharing site by dropping its ranking.
Squidoo allows users to create topic-specific pages called “lenses,” which shares with them, or with a charity of their choice, a portion of the ad revenue resulting from their pages. SEM and SEO spammers have been utilizing the service by connecting user links through lenses to redirect viewers. The firm responded by implementing anti-spam tools and filters that block spam or give users the opportunity to alert the company should they detect potential violators.
Because of this issue, Google has dropped Squidoo 30% in its rankings according to Squidoo co-founder Seth Godin. “There’s no question that with Google’s last shift in their algorithms and ranks we lost traffic,” he said. He continued, “We found that there were several dozen people that were dramatically exploiting the systems within Squidoo that were previously only used for good. People using the site for nefarious ends will come to an end. That’s what we’re doing without Google’s input.”
“As a matter of policy, Google does not comment on the ranking of individual sites in our index,” replied a spokesperson for Google.
Affiliate marketers and search bloggers alike have commended the company for their anti-spam efforts, but there is much speculation that Google is making the firm an example for not having taken enough action against the perpetrators.
Barry Schwartz of Rusty Brick, a search engine marketing firm, said “There must be something going on. For something like that it’s never really too late. If they do clean up their act, typically a small Webmaster would have to go to Google Webmaster tools section to get updated but with a large organization like Squidoo, that can happen in a matter of hours as long as there is publicity around it.”
“It all comes down to Google protecting its assets. Its number one asset is the relevance of the content and the ads it serves up,” said SendTraffic president, Steve Jacoby.
Godin continues to defend his company by insisting that there are only so many precautions a firm can take, “We gave people tools and trusted them to act like grown-ups. Where do you draw the line? If someone will give me the manual I will follow it. Meanwhile we keep experimenting with it.”
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